One of the key goals for drillers during the fall legislative session in Harrisburg is gaining approval of a measure preventing local governments from using zoning ordinances to shut them out, according to an official with a prominent driller in the Marcellus Shale. Pooling of land—where a landowner with no contract is paid the same lease and royalty rates as adjacent landowners with contracts—is of less importance.

"If we have to give up a lot this fall, at the very least we want something in return, and that is straightening out the local zoning ordinances," said the official who preferred not to be identified. "We’ll take pooling if we can get it, but making it clear that local governments can’t abuse their zoning laws to prevent drilling is number one."

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